If 2024 and 2025 were the years of “Let’s see what ChatGPT can do,” 2026 is the year businesses are finally putting their money where their mouth is.
According to the latest Lenovo CIO Playbook, we’ve officially moved past the “playing around” phase. A massive 96% of companies across the ASEAN+ region (including Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand) are planning to hike their AI budgets this year by an average of 15%.
It’s Not Just an “IT Thing” Anymore
One of the most interesting shifts is who is actually paying for these tools. It used to be that the IT department had to beg for a budget to try out new tech. Now, half of the companies surveyed say that departments like Marketing, Finance, and HR are the ones footing the bill.
Essentially, AI has moved from the server room to the boardroom. Executives aren’t just looking for “cool” tech anymore; they want three specific things: a focus on revenue growth, better margins, and customers who can actually fall in love with the user experience of AI, and not hate it.
The Big Payoff (and the Reality Check)
Is the investment worth it? The math says yes. Most organizations in Asia are seeing a 2.8x return on their AI spend. In plain English: for every dollar they drop into AI, they’re getting nearly three dollars back.
However, it’s not all smooth sailing. While everyone is excited about “Agentic AI”—those autonomous AI agents that can actually complete tasks rather than just writing emails—hardly anyone is actually ready for it. Only 10% of businesses feel prepared to roll these agents out at scale. The rest are still tripped up by messy data, security worries, and the general headache of integrating new tech into old systems.
What’s Next?
The “Race for AI” is definitely on, but the winners in 2026 won’t be the ones with the flashiest pilots. They’ll be the ones who figure out how to bridge the gap between a successful “test” and a tool that actually works for the whole company.
Is the Philippines following the money?
Walking around the exhibits at Lenovo Tech Day 2026, I have an observation about the AI startup ecosystem here: half of the conference is dedicated to Singapore-based AI startups (most probably using Lenovo technology) showing off their capabilities, from ESG to security cameras around Changi airport.
Here’s the thing. Singapore is home to over 1,000 AI startups with roughly half securing about USD $1.31 BILLION in funding in the last 12 months.
In comparison, the Philippines only has about 10 AI startups. To compare, the local FinTech industry (prominently Gcash and Maya) has about USD $2.1 BILLION in funding since 2021. In other words, AI startups in Singapore have raised more than half in 24 months than the entire FinTech sector in the PH for the last 5 years.
We aren’t following the money.
